About

Poorer Than You is a personal finance blog for millennials. Sound boring? How about this: Poorer Than You is the site for you if…

You want to be rich someday, but you don’t know where to start.

You have student loans that you know you’ll have to pay off… someday.

You’re not quite sure how to make your money work for you.

You have no idea how much money you have right now.

You’ve seen your parents or other family member struggle with money, and you don’t want that to happen to you.

Although the focus here is on Millennials (those of us born between 1981 and 1996), people both older and younger have found valuable information on this site.

Topics include credit cards, savings, budgeting, earning more money, evaluating job offers… from big financial decisions down to small ones, from the latest news to time-tested advice.

This site offers no “get rich quick” schemes (sorry!), but the goal here is to put you in a better financial position. Don’t you want to enjoy life, instead of fighting with money problems?

Poorer Than You has been mentioned in the New York Times, in international press (which Stephanie can’t read because she doesn’t know Spanish), Dan Ariely’s book Predictably Irrational, and Stephanie was thanked in the acknowledgments of the book X-Men and Philosophy (which has nothing to do with this site, but is awesome).

Who is Stephanie?

A 32-year-old wife and mother of a rambunctious toddler, living in Northern Virginia. She got her Personal Finance Stripes via trial-by-fire: nothing teaches you to manage your money like running out of it and having to drop out of school! Nine months of hard work, saving, and learning about personal finance got her back into school – blogging about it the whole way.

College ended for Stephanie in 2009, bringing on a whole new set of financial challenges to write about. In 2010, Stephanie landed a job at her dream company and a year later, got her dream job of digging through spreadsheets at that company. But in early 2014, she was laid off from the dream job at the dream company, and had to start fresh from there. She spent a short time as a Registered Investment Advisor Representative (note: Stephanie is not currently licensed and does not claim to be, see the disclaimer below) before deciding that being on the phone was never going to be great fit for her and moving on to other jobs that were more fun and involved far fewer phone calls.

The posts on this site are a blend of personal stories and articles – you get the benefit of learning from Stephanie’s mistakes, while also getting the Cliff Notes version of the insane amount of financial literature she reads every day. Stephanie’s current goal is to achieve a net worth of $100,000 (up from -$38,543) by the end of 2018. But it’s not going to be easy! Follow her struggles and achievements by subscribing to the site via RSS or email updates.

Stephanie also crushes fossils with her bare hands (for work), enjoys everything geekdom (especially video games and movies), and may in fact be the oldest person whose parents met online (1985 on CompuServe).

Disclaimer: Stephanie is not a financial adviser. In fact, even if she were, all advice should be taken with a grain of salt. She does not know the financial intricacies of your particular situation, and cannot give complete advice, and therefore is not responsible for your actions. All actions taken based on this site are at your own risk.

Hehe, I know what you mean. I’m working my way through college, and have been dangerously close to dropping out a few times (once getting down to just 2 classes during a semester). Lot’s of people have asked me why my parents won’t pay. Grrrr. 😉

If I had to describe your site with one word, it would be–impressive. You have a very nice site. Your entries are informative and carry your voice very well. Most importantly, they are fun to read! I look forward to reading your blog. Any tips would be appreciated.

This looks like a great site. I get frustrated by a lot of personal finance sites because they assume you have a job making $30k+ a year. I make closer to $15k a year, which makes it hard to save, and those other sites don’t even come close to having appropriate advice. Again, thanks for creating this!

Glad to have stumbled upon your blog! I really enjoy your personal finance chronicles and how your no nonsense approach inspires many of your readers 🙂

About Stephonee

Stephonee (or "Stephanie" on her alcohol-purchasing-and-car-driving card) has been sharing her personal finances, observations, and real talk about money on Poorer Than You for 10 years - a third of her life.Learn more...

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